[Class Report] Introduction to System Development – Week 12: Your Very Own App, Development Begins!
Last week, first-year students turned their ideas into design documents. This week, they began developing their original apps based on those designs.
■ Instructor’s Introduction: “Today is Your First Step”
Mr. Tanaka: “From today, it’s time to turn your idea into something real. The key is to build something small that works. Don’t aim to finish everything at once—take small steps and keep moving.”
He drew a flow on the whiteboard: “Design → Prototype → Test → Improve → Complete” and emphasized the importance of the mindset: “Try it, test it, improve it.”
■ Exercise 1: Start with Just Input and Output
The first goal of the day was simple: get something working, even if it’s just input and output.
Example: Beginning of a Personality Quiz App
name = input("Please enter your name: ")
print(name + ", let’s begin your diagnosis!")
Student A: “It’s not much, but seeing it run is exciting.”
Student B: “It’s like a start screen—cool!”
■ Exercise 2: Building the Logic with Functions and Lists
Next, students referred to their design sheets to start implementing parts like questions and output logic, using functions and lists to structure their code.
Example: Looping Through Questions in a List
questions = ["Did you eat breakfast?", "What’s your favorite color?", "Do you prefer staying in or going out on weekends?"]
for q in questions:
input(q)
Student C: “Using lists and loops makes it so efficient!”
Student D: “Putting things in functions makes the code way easier to read.”
■ Focus Time: Just Get Your App to Work
In the second half, students focused quietly on getting their apps to function. Across the room, you could hear the sounds of print() and input(), errors popping up, and test outputs being read aloud.
Projects included:
- A quiz tool that changes results based on the user’s name
- A self-assessment app that gives advice based on score
- A branching story app where the next question changes based on choices
Student E: “It’s full of errors, but honestly that’s kind of fun (lol).”
Student F: “It worked! It really feels like I’m making something myself!”
■ Instructor’s Comment
“What you practiced today is the foundation of development: build small, test often. It’s okay if things don’t work right away. In programming, learning through mistakes is one of the most important skills.”
■ Next Week’s Preview: Testing and Improving
Next time, students will review their apps to ask: “Does it actually work?” and “How can it be better?” We’ll focus on balancing the power to build with the power to improve.
Students have now experienced the process of “think first, then build.” Their focused expressions say it all. As they bring their ideas to life on screen, they’re already eager for the next step.